Book Review

The Medical & Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY

Thomas W. Hilgers, MD
Pope Paul VI Institute

This book is absolutely amazing! Finally we have a medical textbook to introduce NaProTECHNOLOGY to the world. This is a must have for anyone involved in women’s health.

This beautifully illustrated 1244-page hardbound textbook, which is jam-packed with information for the healthcare professional, was released last summer at the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals 2004 annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. It contains 90 chapters, 830 color photographs, 672 figures and illustrations, 460 tables and 2,158 references. Best of all, it contains an entire chapter on compounding pharmacy. The author has been working on this book for over 20 years, compiling research, data, case studies and pictures for its publication. He is truly an amazing author, researcher, academician, practitioner and physician.

Last year, I had a surprising request from the author – to write a chapter for this textbook on “The Role of the Compounding Pharmacist in NaProTECHNOLOGY.” It was an honor to be asked and to have my profession represented in such an incredible book and field of science. Like compounding pharmacy, NaProTECHNOLOGY is practiced through a triad relationship: instead of the pharmacist/ patient/provider it is the pharmacist/patient/ medical consultant or practitioner triad relationship. In my chapter, I explained the history of our profession, how we are regulated, the services that we provide and how to find us. I also discussed the compounding of bioidentical hormones in a variety of dosage forms for various uses throughout the lifecycles. My goal was to encourage physicians and providers to develop relationships with compounding pharmacists in their local areas.

NaProTECHNOLOGY is “a new women’s health science…[that] work[s] cooperatively with a woman’s menstrual and fertility cycles…NaProTECHNOLOGY is the first systemto network family planning[using the CREIGHTON MODEL Fertility CareSystem] with reproductive and gynecologic health monitoring and maintenance. Its use has application in family planning, the evaluation and treatment of infertility and other reproductive disorders, abnormal bleeding, abnormal hormone conditions of the menstrual cycle including premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and recurrent ovarian cysts, the dating of the beginning of a pregnancy, and postpartum depression…While education [of patients] is one of its foundations, NaProTECHNOLOGY also relies on developments in medical technology...( targeted hormone surveys, expert ultrasound evaluation, and various surgical approachesthat utilize laser technology, microsurgical applicationsand anti-adhesion strategies).” (Taken from Chapter 2, “What is NaProTechnology?”)

Many protocols advocated in this textbook are being used by properly trained practitioners and medical consultants around the world. Most involve the use of compounded preparations. Compounding pharmacists should familiarize themselves with this new science, as it can help them in their current practice. This textbook contains all the documentation one will ever need on the use of progesterone in pregnancy, PMS, postpartum depression, miscarriage and infertility. And for those who are unsure about the validity of serum testing for hormones, there is more than enough evidence for its use in medical practice. Targeted hormone assessment of the menstrual cycle using serum is discussed at length with regards to the how, when and why of testing for each hormone. Do you have patients with recurrent ovarian cysts or polycystic ovarian disease? Learn how to manage them without surgery and without birth-control pills. The relationships between thyroid system dysfunction and infertility, as well as PMS, are also discussed.

One does not have to be interested in natural family planning or the CREIGHTON MODEL Fertility CareSystem to read this book. This one ranks up there with Estrogens and Progestogens In Clinical Practice(written by R. Jansen, I. S. Fraser, R. Lobo et al, 1998) as the other must have in my library. You be the judge. It is an amazing book at an amazing price. At this price, you can buy them for marketing purposes and give them to your physicians, especially the obstetrician/ gynecologists.